


Coda

by thesometimeswarrior



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Character Study, Family, Ficlet, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Post-Episode s05e29-32 Change Your Mind
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-27
Updated: 2019-01-27
Packaged: 2019-10-17 17:05:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 423
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17564528
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thesometimeswarrior/pseuds/thesometimeswarrior
Summary: In the end, it’s just the four of you sitting on the beach, watching quietly as the stars dance above you.





	Coda

**Author's Note:**

> _Coda:_   
>  _1\. (geology) In seismograms, the gradual return to baseline after a seismic event._   
>  _2\. (music) A passage that brings a movement or piece to a conclusion through prolongation._

In the end, it’s just the four of you sitting on the beach, watching quietly as the stars dance above you. And then even they three are overcome with exhaustion, the type that comes both with terror and with overwhelming joy, and comes especially when the two are juxtaposed in such close proximity. 

“It’s late,” Pearl hints.  

You catch her meaning. Agree. Tell them all to go get some rest. 

(They don’t sleep, but you know by now that there’s other ways they need to dream.) 

Amethyst eyes you, face painted with an earnest concern. “You sure, dude? Cuz we can stay and keep you company…”

But Garnet gently comes to your defense. “Steven will be fine.” 

(The others think it’s Future Vision, but you know better. Know now that Garnet _gets_ you in a way you’d never realized before—gets what solitude means to you and what it doesn’t—even if she doesn’t yet understand why.)

(You haven’t yet told her, any of them, what happened that they can’t remember, when their minds and bodies were bleached and robbed from them, if only temporarily.) 

(You _will_ tell them, when you need to. When the euphoria wears off.)

“Well, alright,” Pearl relents, smiling, standing. “Just this once.”

They pace back to the Temple, and when it’s just you in front of the waves, you lay the ukulele on the ground and yourself face-up on the sand. 

Your Gem pulses under your hand.

Scarcely two days ago, all the monsters that grew up in your closet emerged from the water, sentient and healed and most of them _smiling._

Scarcely two weeks ago, you learned that your mother used to be Pink Diamond.

(Almost two years ago, you summoned her— _your_ —shield for the first time.)

The nightmares, you’re sure, will come. And when they do, you will have so many people to hold your hand, and to wrap you close, and to listen as you cry healing tears on their shoulders, and to distract you with jokes until you can’t help but belly-laugh, and to sing songs of comfort in your ears to remind you that you’re still alive.

The nightmares will come. But not yet.

For now, you’re content to envelop yourself in your arms, feel your Gem in your stomach—warm, like Dad’s guitar strings and his bear hugs, like Connie’s hands when you dance and her forehead when you spar, like Amethyst’s snickers, like Garnet’s fingers ruffling your hair, like Pearl’s embraces, like Fusion.

You think: _I am made of love._

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed! I love comments!


End file.
